Bonga has let his people down

I SUPPORT the comment by Joseph I Musiap in his letter (“Situm road in sorry state, Bonga”, The National, May 30) to our member Timothy Bonga regarding the Bukawa road.
On behalf of the people who use the Bukawa road, I call on Bonga to make an effort to upgrade the stretch from Situm to Bukawa.
More than 10,000 people rely on this road, inclu­ding those in Finschhafen.
Is it so hard to plan and buy a backhoe and a tipper truck and hand it to the Situm-Labuta district works people to operate and maintain this road?
This road is just 30 mi­nutes out of Lae and it is not difficult to maintain be­cause it is on a flat surface.
If need be, drop in to see Sam Basil and he will be more than happy to give you copies of his road plans and budgets.
Is it difficult to emulate what Basil is doing?
He is serving his people and I cannot say that about Bonga.
It will do you a world of good to sack your officers at Malahang who are lazing around doing nothing but waiting for the next pay cheque.
I suggest you take a drive to Buso River at Wagang and see your people being forced to become donkeys and horses as they have to carry loads of banana, taro, sick villagers, dead villagers and garden goods to Lae which is only half an hour away and yet it seems like 100 miles to these poor villagers.
I wonder if Bonga is aware that the road near Aluki has been washed away numerous times and the villagers repaired the road using their bare hands time and again.
At the opening of a church at Busu village in June last year, Bonga said he had allocated K16 million to rebuild the Buso bridge.
A year has passed and we have seen no sign of work on the bridge.
The people have waited 16 years for a replacement bridge and we will continue to wait in vain.
This bridge is a vital piece of infrastructure as it will drive more economic activities from Labuta to Finschhafen to Kabwum and Pindiu.
We want to see physical implementation of the much-needed infrastructure, not maus wara.

 
Asa Sumba
Lae